07.01 - "Lets find the Kitchens"
Recap: The party decided it would be best to wait until sundown and explore, with Gamble appearing as the sexy sexy vampire slut. Realizing that this plan involved sending Gamble out BY HIMSELF the others panicked and then realized they had enough clothes from the vampire spawn to send three of them with Gamble. Bismark, Blak and A'pos went. Brynne, nursing a slight hangover, stayed with Able in the tower. Able, with abject fear in his eyes begged Hector to chaperone. He agreed then immediately left them alone to go downstairs and attempt to dig through the ice to get the ground floor door open. Brynne and Able . . .bonded. Meanwhile the outside crew, being watched by the 3 ogers manning the balista on the "rear tower", headed to check the walls, and spotted a trio of very large doors. Thinking they may be giant quarters they went to investigate. Finding 3 guest rooms, all empty, sized appropriately for giants. Each one contained one wall that was made entirely of opaque smooth ice. Moving around the edge of the upper courtyard wall they found another door, listening they heard squeaky/raspy voices in draconic, the wind of travel (You had gone South, then South East over last 16 hours as far as you knew), made it impossible to make out any detail. Throwing open the door a room full of about 20 kobolds in various states of rest. Grabbing the nearest one they pulled him into one of the empty giant rooms and interrogated. Discovering that there were 3 giants, one sky, two stone they also learned that due to the old magic on the tower, shoudl the sky giant die . . . the entire magics that allows the castle to fly would immediately end. This led to a lot of maniacal laughter from the party as a plan formed. Deciding that the kobold had outlived it's usefulness Gamble/Vampire Rogue Sneak Attacked the ever loving FUCK out of it, sending its' body flying against the opaque ice wall, which IMMEDIATELY dissapeared and the body went tumbling off the edge of the tower. This revealed that each guest room has an Vanishing Wall of Ice that is used to gain access to a balcony/landing pad of sorts. It returned 1 min later. They party decided to head back up and continue to plan. There they found Hector chipping away at ice, singing railroad songs, while Brynne and Able in a compromising position. He may or may not have been bound and gagged and thus unable to say his safe word. We may never know. A quick planning session then occurred with everyone reutnring to their normal looks, hoping that the passphrases would be enough to secure passage around the castle. The rearmost tower with the 3 ogers was revealed to have been where Blagothkus (the Sky Giant) resided. Brynne pointed out that the man has to eat . . . It was determined that a brilliant course of action would be to find the kitchens and the cook on the castle's lower courtyard. Gamble pointed out that if you are sleeping for 5,000 years due to a magic potion, you probably won't wake up quickly enough to cast featherfall should you somehow get pushed over the edge ... Making their way downstairs the group decided to investigate the large group of rooms behind the double doors. They found a locked door with no sound behind it, a locked door with some soft murmering in Draconic, another door that had a pair of voices in it, evidently discussing schools of magic. The Kobold HAD mentioned there were some wizards on board, perhaps the Red Wizards from Thay? Finally a 4th Giant Guest room was found, also empty. No luck on the kitchens. Heading back to the first locked door they opened it, finding a store room with boxes and salted meat. Putting two and two together they realized the room across the hall was OBVIOUSLY the kitchen. A quick lockpicking check they got that door unlocked and opened it, ready to intimdate or kill the cook! The door swung open and all 7 of our Heros were looking at Rezmir, sitting in a chair, reading to himself in a book, flanked by a couple of faithful guard drakes. "Do I ... know you?" "This isn't the kitchen ... we're just looking for a ham sandwich" was the least convincing cover story of all time. Brynne broke the ice by trying to feet a guard drake an Apricot. A few heartbeats passed and then it was on, everyone reaching for weapons. Blak attempted to Suggest to Rez (Legendary Save) Able, without missing a beat fireballed the room, revealing that even the nicely appointed rug was a construct which writhed in pain. Drake attacks, more fireballs. Gamble cast SLOW on the room. The Half-Black Dragon Rezmir strode forward and spewed acid on the party, killing one of his hounds in the process. Then a reaction where he made a magical cone of Darkness. Brynne enchanted a mace with Silence and threw it in the room, negating any verbal spells. Gamble didn't know this and went in attempting to do some more dope ass shit. It didn't go off. The light of Quelin's Gem of Brightness negated the darkness for one full round. Borrowing some bat guano that ol' A'pos has been getting from Bartholmew over the last few days "... Does a fiend bat shit?" A'pos cast blight! More fireball Blak used Mantle of Majesty and attempted to Command Rezmir to "Backflip" ... not being proficient in acrobatics he landed on his face, prone. Bismark knew exactly what to do in this situation -> more stabbing! Action surging. (Somehow trip attacking HIMSELF?) In the span of 10 seconds rezmir lie dead in a pool of blood, soaking the threads of the destroyed carpet. Bismark began carving up the kill, Hector saw a set of books and got excited, stepping over the body. A gleaming treasure chest also caught Bismark's eye and he discovered that it was OBVIOUSLY trapped (same style that blew up the wardrobe). This didn't stop him from tinkering AND triggering the HEAVY duty poison needle trap. Luckily he survived and the chest sprung open. Revealing tons of gems, coins and a magical item with unspeakable power.